The present disclosure relates to image-processing systems. More particularly, a system and method for an improved image-editing application are disclosed.
Numerous software applications are commercially available for acquiring, selecting, and editing a digital representation of an image in a number of ways. Frequently, these software applications are configured with a graphical user interface (GUI) suitable for selecting and editing an acquired digital image. For example, to xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d or delete a portion of the image, the user can use a mouse to select an area of the image by clicking the left mouse button while the screen xe2x80x9ccursorxe2x80x9d is located on a corner of the image that is desired to be deleted, dragging the screen xe2x80x9ccursorxe2x80x9d with the mouse to another corner, thereby outlining a portion of interest or the entire acquired image.
After triggering some input command to complete the selection of the region or portion of interest, the operator then completes the xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d by either selecting the xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d command from a drop-down menu (using his mouse and/or a keyboard), or alternatively, by using his mouse to select and activate a graphical interface xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d button or icon. In either case, known image-editing software is invoked which performs the xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d operation, resulting in the original image being replaced by an edited image which has a blanked-out area enclosed by the boundaries of the region selected.
The aforementioned xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d operation represents one of the more basic image-editing functions. Commercially available image-editing systems offer a number of operator selectable image-processing parameters that may be applied via known image-editing software to adjust the look of the entire portion of a region of interest. For example, many image-editing systems offer an interface that permits an operator to select various degrees of color saturation. Other common parameters that may be adjusted include: brightness, contrast, and sharpness, etc.
Generally, experienced operators of these commercially available image-editing systems have acquired a knowledge base and understanding of how the selected image will change when the image editor is provided one or more modified imaging parameter values and the image editor modifies the image. On the other hand, inexperienced operators and operators with less visual acuity than the more experienced image-editing system operators, are often frustrated by the control sensitivities provided via the GUI.
For example, some operators may have a limited ability to perceive changes when a color-saturation parameter value associated with a color having a specific range of frequencies. This limited acuity to discern color saturation level changes in a processed image may leave the operator wondering if her last change to the color-saturation level was accepted and applied by the image editor. Similarly, an operator may have trouble discerning contrast adjustments applied by the image editor. Post acquisition image processing is both time and resource intensive. As a result, an inability of the operator to distinguish an image-processing parameter change when it is applied results in an inefficient use of the operator""s time, as well as, an inefficient use of the computing resources of the image-processing system in addition to the aforementioned operator frustration.
From the above, it will be appreciated that it is desirable to provide a system and method for selectively modifying the control sensitivity provided in association with one or more image-processing parameters in an image-editing application. Briefly described, in architecture, an image-processing system capable of modifying control sensitivity values in response to one or more visual-acuity tests can be implemented with a processor, a user command interface, an image display device, a visual acuity logic, an image acquisition device, and an image-processing logic.
Some embodiments of the system can be viewed as providing a method for modifying the control sensitivity of one or more image-processing parameters. In this regard, the method can be summarized by the following steps: identifying when a new operator is processing images with the system; applying one or more visual-acuity tests to determine one or more processing-parameter control-sensitivity values that when applied result in perceivable changes to an edited image; and inserting the one or more processing-parameter control values into the system.